"There's a lot going on here," says David Spencer, a local angel investor and a major backer of the school's athletic and academic efforts. "We're driving a wooden stake through the zombie that is the commuter culture (at UTSA)."

Vintage Spencer. I've known him since the late 1990s, when he was running OnBoard Software, which contracted to upgrade the computers on military planes, out of an old warehouse at Kelly AFB. He is a tall and excitable man, as well as a visionary civic booster. Time spent with Spencer is time spent with your adrenalin level set at "11."

Back then, he was interested in building up UTSA's reputation in engineering and in the world. He wanted the school to reach out to local Latino kids and turn them into engineers and scientists.

He worked with other leaders - tech, city and school - on his plans. Spencer and wife Jennifer donated $1 million to the school's engineering programs. Others donated, too. And now, he says, UTSA produces more Hispanic engineers than any other school in the country.

The next step was getting them jobs locally. And at about that time, UTSA upped the ante in terms of athletics, creating a top-tier football program. That was in need of work, too, as the pre-game atmosphere was seriously lacking in excitement.

Once again, enter Spencer and a handful of other local business leaders.

Spencer and his team thought about the problems - football atmosphere and engineering - and, like many of us in times of need, turned to the 1987 film "The Princess Bride" for guidance.

In that film, the evil Prince Humperdinck needs the Thieves Forest cleared, so he calls upon a Brute Squad to do the dirty work.

Hence, the creation of the UTSA Brute Squad, an unofficial spirit club … and then some.

The group parties, but it also solicits donations, with half funding UTSA cheerleaders and the rest going to student engineering clubs. Brute Club members foot the bill for the party itself.

"The Brute Squad is doing a great job," said UTSA President Ricardo Romo, who stopped by the bus to say "hi." "It's, indeed, a startup culture, and they're doing a good job supporting the school, the students and the community."

Spencer donated a golf cart and two T-shirt cannons so the athletics department could help spread the pre-game cheer.

For every home game, he invites some local tech-company presidents for a pre-game beer. And engineering students are invited to mingle with them.

This is a big deal because, to be blunt, engineers are shut-ins and nerds. Their field of study isn't one that lends itself to cooperation.

"This is a drive to get us out and let us relax," mechanical engineering junior Ivana Escobar said. "And we can make contacts in the field without handing someone a résumé first."

"It gets the students involved with the business community," Guinn said. "We're looking to hire people who can communicate and relate to the community. We know they're smart. We need to see them interact with others. They need social skills for that.